Thread: Swaty Made in USA ?

IIRC, the American Hone Company moved to Moravia, IA from New York, lock, stock, and barrel. There are various threads about it; here's one I found: American Hone Company

I got my Frictionite00 in the late 70s. I was an oboist in Jr. High and it came as part of an inexpensive reed-making kit. It sat unappreciated in a toolbox, in the same tray as an unappreciated coticule, for a couple of decades. I was in Iowa, and thought it was cool that the hone came from Iowa, too. Moravia is out in the country in south-central Iowa, an obscure little place.

Given the political turmoil in Austria at the time and with the Austrian civil war was coming in just a couple of years I wonder if the seller of these in the USA may have used some literary license in making the made in the USA claim. Certainly it
would not have difficult to modify the molds to reflect USA but since these hones were already popular they did not want to
remove the name "Austria" for fear of losing sales.

A potted history of the AHCo and the man who bought it:

Originally based in Olean, NY, the American Hone Co moved to Moravia Iowa in 1950 after being bought out by Merrill Johnson, owner of Success Barber Supply. Johnson hired a young woman (Lois Hiatt, fresh out of highschool) to oversee the making of the hones - she had access to the original owners which made life simpler, and one of the original employees assisted for four months They produced 'hot hones' that were baked using natural ingredients in a matrix and 'cold hones' - both the hot and cold hones were made using a press, but the cold variety did not need baking. When Hiatt died (2004) she left lists of the hone ingredients behind her, but no-one has succeeded in making them work.

Merrill Herschel Johnson had an interesting career, being born in Monroe Co., Iowa in 1889. He was a barber while still in school, a partner in two barber shops, a barbershop owner, patentee of a strop filler and a honing method owner and barber in Moravia and started his own mail order supply company - Success Barber Supply. He also had his own farm and ranch. The American Hone Co was at 111 E. Charlton, Moravia, Iowa. Success Barber & Beauty Supply is at 113 E Charlton St.

The Frictionite was made by AHC, but the 00 model was stopped (according to RandyDance who knew/knows one of the owners) because the Rhodesian company supplying the abrasive grit went out of business. They also made hones for Dubl Duck and many other companies, badged with the clients name, as well as over a hundred others including Lithide, Black Diamond, Ahconite, Super Punjab, Reliance, Little Devil, Vinco, Carbro, etc, etc. When the company went out of business the stock was bought up by Anton and Diana Till and sold on Ebay.

Regards,
Neil

The line in that text "Super Smooth-O" is telling. That was a product made by the American Hone Company and is essentially a combination of rouge and lanolin. Since AHC also made the "3 Line Swaty" after they moved to Moravia, IA I suspect that the Olean NY people also made the one pictured in the advertisement. They may very well have had the abrasive shipped in from Europe but who knows?

Neil Miller has the history of the AHC in Moravia correct. Lois did start there soon after high school and she never did write down the "process". Only a 3" x 5" recipe card exists for each of the hones and it only has the ingredients and quantity listed for a batch size and the hone dimensions. At one time there were 33 people employed by them but they made a wide variety of Barber shop products, not just hones.